Chapter 217: Past Connections
Xiangxiang had snuck back at some point and was standing under the tree, watching them quietly.
He Yan stared at him blankly: "Is what you said true?"
"I see your swordsmanship has improved quite a bit, but you're still the same as before," he said lazily, with a hint of mockery. "Just as foolish and short."
These words seemed to pull He Yan back to those days, and the earlier embarrassment and awkwardness gradually faded away.
A warm feeling surged in her heart, and all her unease turned to ashes in that moment. She lifted her head, unable to hide her smile. "But you're exactly the same as you were back then."
Xiao Jue coughed lightly and turned away. He Yan, now energized, refused to let him off. She grabbed his sleeve and wouldn't let go, tilting her head to ask, "My swordsmanship was personally guided by you. But back then, I was disguised as a man. Why did you take such good care of me? Could it be that you already liked me back then?"
This was truly shameless talk. Xiao Jue scoffed, "I'm not a cut-sleeve."
"But you sure look like one," He Yan suddenly realized. "No wonder Yan Nanguang always disliked me back then. He probably thought I was some male fox spirit who had tainted the only genius he considered a rival."
Xiao Jue stared at her incredulously. "You're not upset anymore, are you?"
"I was never upset," He Yan stubbornly insisted.
"You were about to cry just now," he raised an eyebrow. "So reluctant to part with me?"
He Yan felt embarrassed and retorted, "How could I possibly cry? You must have seen wrong. Of course, I'm reluctant to part with you. After all, we share the bond of classmates."
"Just the bond of classmates?"
Ignoring him, He Yan leaned closer and said, "Don't change the subject. First, tell me, why did you guide my swordsmanship back at Virtuous Prosperity Academy? You're not the type to help others for no reason. You must have been smitten with me back then, Xiao Huaijin. Could it be that you really are a cut-sleeve?"
Xiao Jue's expression darkened slightly as he scolded, "Nonsense."
"Then tell me why."
This was something He Yan had long wanted to ask him. Back then, she and Xiao Jue weren't particularly close, yet he was willing to patiently guide the worst student in Virtuous Prosperity Academy in swordsmanship at night. No wonder Yan He couldn't understand it—even she herself didn't quite get it.
Xiao Jue smiled faintly. "Do you remember the winter solstice competition at the Eastern Mountain Hunting Grounds in the capital, right after we entered Virtuous Prosperity Academy?"
He Yan was taken aback. "I remember. What about it?"
She also remembered that it was back then, in her previous life, that she first saw Shen Muxue. The aloof and ethereal Miss Shen stood beside the elegant and refined Second Young Master Xiao. Even from the perspective of her current life, they seemed like a match made in heaven.
He Yan muttered, "Back then, His Majesty personally attended the hunting grounds. All the students of Virtuous Prosperity Academy had to participate in the competition. The student who hunted the most game would receive a reward, while those who failed to catch anything would go without food. Whose idea was that anyway? In the freezing cold, it's perfectly normal not to catch anything. How could they be so harsh as to deprive students of food and let them go hungry?"
Even now, she felt indignant about it, and for good reason—back then, He Yan was one of those who went hungry for failing to catch any game.
Xiao Jue chuckled softly. "Wasn't that your own choice?"
"What?""You clearly had already caught the rabbit, yet you set it free," he turned his head to look at He Yan, "wasn't that your own choice?"
He Yan was stunned for a moment, stammering as she asked, "How... how did you know?"
"Because," Xiao Jue curved his lips into a smile, "that rabbit was the one I released."
It was winter in Shuojing at that time, the hunting grounds completely blanketed in vast white snow. Back then, the Xiao family had not yet encountered trouble, and Xu Jingfu had not yet reached the point of holding sway over everything. Emperor Wenxuan, on a whim, personally visited Dongshan to watch the students of Virtuous Prosperity Academy compete in hunting.
Originally, it was just an academy competition of archery and horsemanship, but with the emperor's arrival, there naturally had to be more rewards. To encourage the young men to strive harder and not disgrace Virtuous Prosperity Academy, some genius teacher at the academy came up with a harsh rule: those who failed to catch any game would go without food that day.
He Yan cursed the person who came up with this idea to the depths of her heart.
Her martial skills were already not outstanding, and her horsemanship and archery were even more abysmal. Among these young men, she truly had no advantage. Unsurprisingly, once they entered the hunting grounds, while her classmates were all high-spirited and triumphant, He Yan felt utterly helpless.
At that time, Xiao Jue was undoubtedly the most eye-catching among all the young men. Mounted on his horse in a sable coat, his appearance was splendid and handsome. In no time, a long string of game was tied behind his horse.
Lin Shuanghe, as the delicate young master who couldn't lift heavy things or bear burdens, stuck close to Xiao Jue, gaining quite a few benefits. It didn't matter if he had any game of his own; in the end, he could just take one or two from Xiao Jue's catch to meet the requirement.
As the two walked through the woods of the hunting grounds, they suddenly saw a gray fletched arrow fly from the side, hitting... a rock with perfect accuracy.
The two paused for a moment.
Soon, a short figure ran out from the woods. She rushed to the rock, pulled out the arrow with effort, looked at it, then simply plopped down on the ground, sighed, and muttered to herself, "Hunting is difficult, more difficult than climbing to the heavens!"
Xiao Jue, Lin Shuanghe: "..."
They both recognized the masked figure sighing deeply—it was Virtuous Prosperity Academy's bottom-ranked fellow, Young Master He.
Lin Shuanghe had previously "progressed together" with He Yan and had developed a sense of camaraderie with this fellow struggler. Seeing this scene, he said, "My brother He is truly pitiful."
Xiao Jue watched coldly, unmoved. In his view, this Young Master He from the He family often had something wrong with his head.
"Look, he doesn't have a single piece of game on his horse. When he returns, he'll have no food and will go hungry. In this harsh winter, going hungry is no joke," Lin Shuanghe, after all, had a healer's compassionate heart and felt a moment of mercy. "How about we give him a badger so he doesn't return empty-handed?"
Xiao Jue scoffed, "Go ahead yourself."
Lin Shuanghe then walked over to Xiao Jue's horse, picking and choosing from the game tied behind it. But halfway through, he suddenly realized, "No, this kid He Rufei, though he can't do anything well, has an extremely stubborn personality. If we just give it to him, he probably won't accept it and will righteously refuse."Just as he had suggested that He Rufei take last place so he could aim for second to last, this gentleman was extremely principled, not even swayed by real gold and silver. Lin Shuanghe believed he had a good eye for people, and such straightforward help was something He Rufei likely wouldn’t accept.
“Here’s an idea,” Lin Shuanghe had a sudden inspiration. “Huai Jin, aren’t you quite skilled with a bow? Later, shoot and injure a rabbit so that He Rufei happens to pass by. An injured rabbit naturally can’t run very fast. If even then He Rufei can’t hit it, he might genuinely have something wrong with his head.”
“What does that have to do with me?” the young Xiao Jue frowned. “I’m not going.”
“Saving a life is worth more than building a seven-story pagoda. Look at this kid, he’s truly pitiful. We’re all classmates, it’s just a small favor… Huai Jin, Huai Jin?”
Lin Shuanghe was particularly patient when it came to trivial matters, and he knew Xiao Jue was the most impatient of them all. Sure enough, after a bit of nagging, Xiao Jue grew thoroughly annoyed. He picked up the bow and arrows from his horse and, aiming in a certain direction, let an arrow fly with a “whoosh.”
From the low bushes, a gray wild rabbit immediately leaped out.
The arrow was shot with remarkable precision—it didn’t hit the rabbit but merely grazed one of its legs. As a result, the rabbit’s movements slowed, while the arrow itself landed in the bushes, unnoticed by anyone.
He Yan was leaning against the rock from earlier, sighing in frustration, when suddenly she saw a rabbit dart out from the woods. Startled at first, she quickly grew excited and, without a second thought, grabbed her bow and arrows and gave chase. For some reason, this rabbit was moving much slower than the ones she’d encountered before. He Yan guessed it might be due to the winter cold, which made even rabbits less agile. But this was a good thing—a fast rabbit might be hard to catch, but could a slow one really escape?
Lin Shuanghe quietly praised Xiao Jue: “Brilliant, Huai Jin. Your assistance is seamless and flawless. This kid must think he’s stumbled upon a great opportunity. Come on, let’s go take a look.” He dragged a reluctant Xiao Jue along and secretly followed behind He Yan.
The rabbit ran for a while, seemingly running out of energy, and slowed down even further. After some thought, He Yan put away her bow and arrows, slinging them over her back. She figured that even without the bow, the rabbit would likely tire itself out soon enough, and she could simply catch it with her bare hands. In ancient times, there was the story of waiting by a tree stump for a rabbit; today, she was waiting for a rabbit to collapse. He Yan gave herself a little mental applause and even had time to observe the rabbit closely.
The rabbit was quite thin, likely starved from the lack of food in winter. It looked as though, even if fried, it wouldn’t yield two ounces of meat. Her mind wandered—she wondered if the prey they hunted could be kept by the students themselves. But even if she brought this rabbit back to the He family, it wouldn’t be enough to give each person a piece of meat.
Before long, the rabbit stopped, pawing at a patch of grass to reveal a burrow. Quick as lightning, He Yan grabbed the rabbit by its ears before it could slip inside and muttered to herself, “They say a cunning rabbit has three burrows—the ancients truly didn’t lie.” Just then, something seemed to be moving inside the burrow. Holding the rabbit in one hand, He Yan curiously pushed aside the grass with the other, revealing three furry little bundles huddled together in the small hole, trembling like three glutinous rice balls.
They were three baby rabbits.He Yan was taken aback for a moment, then looked at the struggling gray rabbit in her hands. Suddenly, it dawned on her—this was a mother rabbit, and the ones in the burrow were her babies.
He Yan fell silent.
Lin Shuanghe, watching the scene from a distance while tugging at Xiao Jue, exclaimed in surprise, "That kid He Rufei is quite lucky to stumble upon a rabbit burrow. If he hands in this whole litter, I bet he won’t be last this time—at least second to last. But... why is he just standing there holding the rabbit?"
The rabbit in her hands twitched silently. He Yan glanced at the three sesame rice dumplings in the burrow, sighed after a moment, and pulled out a small white bottle from her robe.
"What... what is he doing?" Lin Shuanghe was astonished.
The youth named He Rufei was holding the rabbit by its ears, applying medicine to it, and even tore a strip from his robe to bandage the wound on its leg from the arrow graze. As she bandaged it, she muttered, "Fine, since you ran into me, and I’m a good person who can’t bear to separate a mother from her children, I’ll let you off this time."
She grumbled on, "You little rabbits, remember this—because of you, I’ll have to go hungry today."
He Yan worked quickly, finishing the bandaging in no time. She placed the gray rabbit at the entrance of the burrow and let go. The rabbit, now free, darted back into the hole in a flash.
"Not even a thank you?" He Yan sighed. "What has the world come to?" Despite her words, she still rearranged the stones around the burrow to hide it from other predators.
Lin Shuanghe stared in disbelief. "Is He Rufei out of his mind? Is he here to hunt or to release animals? Showing mercy at a time like this—he’s acting like a girl! Is he sympathizing with this rabbit?" He turned to Xiao Jue. "Huai Jin, look..."
Xiao Jue’s gaze lingered on the masked youth. For some reason, it reminded him of an incident from his own youth.
Back before he had left the mountain, when he was training in martial arts and classics under a master, the discipline was even stricter than at the Virtuous Prosperity Academy. Failing or performing poorly in tasks resulted in severe punishments, making it a grueling experience.
During his time on the mountain, there was once a test of his archery and horsemanship. Back then, Xiao Jue had caught a deer.
The deer was quite plump, not as agile or swift as the others when fleeing. He had captured it and was about to raise his knife when the deer knelt before him.
It was a pregnant doe.
At twelve or thirteen, he was not yet as cold and ruthless as he would later become. Seeing this, he couldn’t help but feel a pang of compassion.
His master stood by the waterfall, watching him calmly. "Do not soften your heart."
The young boy stood still, looking at the doe whose eyes seemed to brim with tears. After a moment’s thought, he knelt down, removed the ropes from the deer in front of his master, and watched it escape into the forest.
His master wasn’t angry, but simply looked at him and said, "Do you know what you’ve done? You should not have softened."
"I just wanted to protect what I wish to protect," the boy in snow-white robes replied calmly.
He was punished with three months of breaking formations in the mountains.Xiao Jue did not regret it. In his youth, he had simply believed he did not wish for that doe to die. But now, seeing He Rufei here, carefully bandaging the wounds of a wild rabbit—this was not foolish compassion, nor was it hypocrisy. He suddenly understood what he had truly wanted to protect back then.
A heart that pities the weak.
A person strives to become strong in order to protect those they wish to protect. If, in the pursuit of strength, they lose their original intent, it would be no different from putting the cart before the horse.
"Huai Jin, I really think there's something wrong with He Rufei's mind. If he weren't a man, he could be my 'little sister'..." Lin Shuanghe was still chattering on incessantly beside him, but the young man in white robes was momentarily lost in thought. He lowered his head, a faint smile tugging at the corner of his mouth as he chuckled quietly to himself.
That day, He Rufei indeed returned empty-handed, the only youth at the Virtuous Prosperity Academy who failed to hunt any game. And from the very next day, Xiao Jue began rising at night, walking to the courtyard behind the bamboo grove to watch the clumsy, masked youth "diligently practice." Thus began his "unexpected entanglement" with the one ranked last.
He Yan was stunned, never imagining that she and Xiao Jue shared such a hidden past. Xiao Jue's arrow had been well-concealed back then, and she had never realized that the rabbit with the injured leg was his doing. She had merely pitied the creature and acted out of compassion, never expecting it would move Xiao Jue in that very moment.
"You were moved by my kindness?" He Yan shuddered, finding the idea somewhat cringe-inducing.
Xiao Jue seemed at a loss for words. "It wasn't kindness."
It was just...
It was just that back then, Xiao Jue had seen a reflection of his past self in "He Rufei."
He Yan brightened up. "So that's how it is. You were already paying attention to me back when we were classmates? Then why did you pretend to be indifferent?"
Once this person started acting shamelessly, it was truly hard to handle. Xiao Jue changed the subject. "It's getting late. You haven't returned home yet—your father and brother must be worried."
"You're right." He Yan snapped back to reality and saw how deep the night had grown. By now, He Sui and He Yun Sheng were likely already home, perhaps even searching everywhere for her. Worried they might be anxious, she said, "Shall we head back then?"
Xiao Jue whistled, and Green Ears trotted out from the woods, stopping before him. He Yan also mounted Xiang Xiang's back, and the two of them set off at a gentle trot down the mountain. As they rode, He Yan gradually pieced things together and said, "So, Xiao Jue, you had Chi Wu take me to retrieve the sword today just to test me? You were following me all along, weren't you?"
The man showed not a hint of guilt on his face as he leisurely replied, "The matter is extraordinary, so of course it needed confirmation."
"You just wanted to force me to draw my sword, yet you went to such lengths." He Yan thought for a moment. "But what about that Master Lu Daichuan? When I went to his villa, he seemed to know something and even said I already had a sword and couldn't have another. Did you tell him about this?"
"No." Xiao Jue's eyes flickered slightly. "Aside from the two of us, no one else knows."
"Then..."
"Even if he knew something, it wouldn't be strange. He is my master."
He Yan was surprised. "Your master?""I have many masters, he is just one of them. It's not surprising that he could discern your background, but he is already a man beyond worldly affairs. Even if he knows, he won't meddle, so you don't need to worry."
"This isn't about worrying or not," He Yan didn't know what to say for a moment, "this person is your master, you should have at least given me a heads-up. Luckily, I didn't do anything rash, otherwise..."
Xiao Jue glanced at her, amused by her uneasy expression, and chuckled, "What are you afraid of? Even if you really did something, with me here, no one would dare trouble you."
He Yan clicked her tongue, "So you mean I can now strut around Shuojing City as I please?"
"Do as you wish."
(End of Chapter)
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